I would advise that if you're interested in journalism, it is extremely competitive and has become a dead-end industry. Many jobs are getting cut as everything is published on the net. Journalism is still a popular option at unis and unis still advertise it. At sydney I know that media and communication has dropped significantly in ATAR points.
Traditional cadetship programs are no longer the entry point for most graduate journalists. The Herald Sun offered six cadetships last year.
Fairfax suspended traineeships altogether in 2008, though they now offer around 20 positions across five publications.
There’s no doubt that newsrooms in traditional media are shrinking. Morale of journalists within those newsrooms appears strained at best, internal politics and union battles seem rife. And the pay? It makes burger flipping look attractive.
And yet, the thirst for qualifications in journalism and media-related disciplines continues to grow. At Swinburne University, the new journalism degree attracted over 100 students in its first year.
Digital creation:
I do this because young graduates actually have a distinct advantage over experienced applicants. They live in the digitised, networked social media environs that media practitioners so desperately want to understand.
We have a situation where young people are still interested in communicating for a living but the industry seems incapable of supporting this interest with suitable employment.
So how do journalism educators prepare students to work in a rapidly changing industry?
The first semester the teachers asks how many students want to pursue news reporting as a career. You’d assume the majority, right? In fact, it’s usually just over a third of the class that raises their hand.This is indicative of the changing understanding of the role of journalism in a convergent media age. Students have a much broader view of the industry itself and journalism skills are seen as important for an array of potential media careers.
It means the last thing they would suggest to a graduate is to look under “journalist” in job ads. Instead they encourage students to make their own jobs.
More importantly they are already using a mix of traditional, online and social media to research and disseminate journalistic work. n an age of rapid technological change, it is the journalists capable of producing compelling journalism across mediums and audiences who will find jobs.
The industry itself is already recognising this. The Herald Sun appointed its first “social media editor” this year.
If you really want to do communications do it at UTS or a private college like Mcleay College. Many universities are too theory based and not enough practical based which is why UTS would be a good option or a private institute. However consider combining it with another degree like law or social policy or international studies as you need to consider that journalism may not be around in a few years and the available job will be pretty limited.
